Get It Together, Dad
by Irish Bug
Summary: When Wilbur discovers the rocky beginnings of Cornelius and Franny's relationship, he decides that he is responsible for getting his best friend into a happy relationship with his mom.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: All right. This was sort of inspired by a comic I saw on deviantArt by Irrel. A little backwards and tweaked so it's original. _

"Wilbur, you still need to finish your vegetables."

"Mom, I'm eighteen years old, not five."

"He's eighteen for three days and suddenly he's an 'adult.' You're still in high school!"

"Shut up, Tallulah!" Wilbur retorted, throwing his carrots across the table at his cousin.

"You brat!"

Tallulah chucked a piece of chicken in Wilbur's direction. He dodged it with ease and began picking at his veggies.

"Are you all right, Wilbur?" asked Cornelius, noticing that his son had not engaged in full dinner warfare like he usually would.

"Yeah." Wilbur mumbled, chewing on some string beans. "I was just supposed to be on a date right now."

"A date!?"

The entire table erupted.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"What's her name?"

"Where were you going?"

"Did she cancel?"

"Whoa, guys!" Franny interrupted. "Calm down. Now, Wilbur, do you want to tell us what happened?"

"Yeah sure." Wilbur grumbled. He really didn't care that much. The girl wasn't that great, anyway, definitely not up to Robinson standards. Then again, neither was he. "She got asked to go get coffee with Chad Meyers, so of course she ditched me."

"Chad Meyers?' asked Franny as she put her hand on Wilbur's shoulder. "But… he's not… attractive."

"He's the quarterback." Said Wilbur.

"He's an idiot." Lazlo interjected.

"He's not exactly the smartest kid." Cornelius muttered.

"You're much better." Franny assured her son.

"Then why does he have a new date every Friday and I can rarely get one a year?"

"Love is tough." Cornelius said. "It's hard to find, especially when there's something intimidating about you. Girls are probably shy because you are incredibly handsome."

"Yeah sure." Wilbur rolled his eyes. "That's exactly what it is, Dad."

"Well why not?" said Cornelius. "No one ever asked me out."

"Dad, you were a dweeb."

"A cute dweeb!"

"An adorable dweeb." Franny said, smiling at her husband. "But honey, no one ever asked you out because you were always a thousand miles ahead of anyone your age. You didn't expect college girls to ask out a teenager, did you?"

"Wait," said Wilbur. "You weren't dating in college?"

"Of course not!" said Franny. "In fact, we drifted apart when he was in college. I was still in middle school, Wilbur."

"But… but." Wilbur stuttered. "You met in middle school, right?"

"Yes we did." Said Cornelius, fondly remembering the image of sixth grade Franny covered in frogs.

"Of course, and I fell hard for the kid." Franny said. "He was smart and cute, _plus_ he told me I was right."

"Then what happened?"

"Wilbur, eleven and twelve-year-olds don't start relationships. We were shy."

"But Dad, you knew you were going to marry her. You had all ready met her in the future!"

"I know I knew. Did you want me to propose right there?"

"Wilbur, you're father and I weren't an instant match. In fact, I stopped liking him for a long time."

"That's terrible." Said Wilbur, thinking hard.

"We had a huge fight, actually." Cornelius said. "Remember, Franny?"

"Of course I do."

"She was upset because I saw her in town and told her we could get together and get ice cream or something one day, and I never called her or anything. It was stupid, but we didn't talk for a few years after that."

"What!?" Wilbur exclaimed. "That's ridiculous!"

"I didn't want to have anything to do with him after that. I didn't want to have a crush on him or even think about him. So I stopped both."

"Interesting. I just assumed you two were a match made in Heaven and it was love at first sight and little angels came down and played their harps around your heads because you were so perfect."

"For from it, dear." Franny giggled.

Wilbur looked from his father to his mother. He was so sure that they had fallen in love the second they met when Lewis got back to the science fair. He couldn't believe they had never told him that they weren't even friends for a long time. He thought over what he'd just been told a few times in silence and decided what he had to do.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Mkay, it takes a bunch of extra typing and might take some getting used to, but I do refer to Lewis as Cornelius throughout the entire story. I don't mention it in the story, so I will say it now that (according to me) his name was changed when he was adopted so that legally he just went straight to being Cornelius Robinson from Lewis Nolastname. Just FWI._

Cornelius waltzed into the kitchen with his nose in a book and a smile on his face.

"What are you reading today, honey?" Lucille asked as she set a heaping plate of pancakes on the table in front of her husband.

"A fantasy." replied Cornelius, walking to the fridge and pulling out the orange juice without needing to look.

"Fantasy, eh?" said Bud. "It must be interesting if it's holding your attention over pancakes."

"_Nothing_ holds my attention over Mom's pancakes."

Cornelius put down his copy of _Fantasy Fantastic_, kissed his mother on the cheek, and sat down with his orange juice. He was getting ready to grab himself as many of those delicious pancakes as his father would let him get. When Lucille returned from the stove with the next batch of pancakes, he looked his father right in the eye as if to propose a challenge. Lucille began to sit very slowly. Cornelius was getting rather anxious, and his eyes were starting to shift around from his father to his mother to the warm pancakes on the table. Bud's concentration was incredible, though, and his constant stare into Cornelius's eyes made the seventeen-year-old even more nervous.

Lucille hovered over her chair for a split second, just to giggle at the look on her son's face as he anticipated the competition ahead. The moment her back side made contact with the red checkered cushion, the two boys jumped out of theirs.

In an attempt to beat his father for once, Cornelius stabbed at as many pancakes as humanly possible. He grabbed two fork fulls of three, launched them onto his plate beside him, and quickly reached back for more. Bud, though, was much quicker and snatched up the rest of the batch before Cornelius even had another chance.

Cornelius quickly grabbed for his syrup, hoping to at least win the best time.

"GAME!" Lucille laughed when she noticed that both of her boys had gathered their pancakes and smothered them with syrup. "That was definitely a tie in the time division!"

Cornelius jumped out of his seat and did a victory dance.

"HA!" He exclaimed, pointing at his father across the table. "I TIED you! Next time, I will beat you completely!"

"Maybe you've got good time," smirked Bud. "But I will always have the most pancakes."

Cornelius slowly sat down in his chair, realizing that his father clearly had four more pancakes than he did and a tie plus a win makes a win, and all he did was loose again.

"Oh, Cornelius," Lucille cooed. "You'll beat him some day."

"Maybe in a million years." he sulked, flopping some of his messy pancakes onto his mother's plate.

"Maybe two million." Bud beamed, scooping some pancake slop off his plate for his wife.

Cornelius gave his father one of those yeah-yeah-I-know-you're-good looks and rolled his eyes.

"Good game, old man." He said, reaching across the table and shaking hands with his father.

"Thanks little fella."

After a fun-filled breakfast, Cornelius grabbed his back pack and headed out the door to pick up some things for his new invention.

"Bye Mom, bye Dad!" He exclaimed behind him as he walked out into the fresh air. Just when he closed the door and locked it up, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bushes next to him.

"Ow!" He yelled, recoiling in pain from the branches and fear that he was being kidnapped.

"Shhhhhhh!" Came the voice of whoever abducted him.

"Let me go!" Lewis shouted.

"No no no, be quiet! I don't want Grandpa or Grandma coming out here! They'll think I'm kidnapping you or something."

"Grandpa or Grandma?" Cornelius inquired.

_Oh no,_ he thought. _He wouldn't._

He peered into the darkness past the leaves to try and distinguish this person beside him. The second he caught a glimpse of shiny, pointy hair he jumped back and relaxed all at the same time.

"Wilbur!" He scolded. "What are you doing here? You know you aren't allowed to mess with the time machines."

"I know. But I had to." Wilbur said in the matter-of-fact tone of voice he always took.

"What's wrong with you, remember last time?"

"The question is, my friend, what's wrong with you?"

"What?"

"I've been waiting out here forever! It's 9:45! Don't you ever go to school?"

"No, Wilbur, I don't. I graduated college three years ago."

"Oh, that's… right." Wilbur said as his ego obviously deflated slightly.

"All right." Cornelius said calmly. "I won't punish you too badly if you give me a _really _good reason why you came here. I won't make any promises about your mother, though."

"That's why I'm here! My mother. You haven't been making any moves, _Dad._"

"I-I know." Cornelius stuttered, unable to admit that he was much too shy to actually ask a girl on a date. "I'm a little busy. You know, building a better future and all."

"That's all fine and dandy, but I would like to have a future. And I _won't _unless you get it on with Franny!"

"Whoa!" Cornelius was taken aback by Wilbur's last statement. "Jumping ahead a bit, don't you think? I'm not even eighteen yet, and she's still in high school! I don't know what you do in the future, but I'm not ready for that… quite yet."

Cornelius chocked nervously just thinking about it.

"Come on, Dad. You don't have to do _that_ yet, just ask her out or something."

"I don't know. Shouldn't you just let time run its course and everything will be okay?"

"No, it won't."

"What? What happens! Does something go wrong because I know we're going to get married and maybe I'm just too shy to handle the fact that I have to ask the girl I know I'm going to marry on a date…"

"Calm down, it's not that!"

"Thank goodness." Cornelius was starting to get a bit worked up. "Then what it is?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Just listen to me."

"I'm the father, here. You should be listening to me."

"I'm older."

"You- You're older? You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Yup."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen!? Get out of the bush."

"What?'

"_Now!_"

Cornelius pushed Wilbur out of the push onto the soft grass next to the walkway and peered down at the boy.

"Oh my." He said.

Cornelius was shocked at the person he saw in front of him. Wilbur was very thin, but not awkward. His little boy charm had grown into handsome charisma. He was definitely growing into a fine adult. There was one thing, though that had not changed, and that was the essential Robinsons cowlick that he proudly bore with the same hair he had at age thirteen.

"You're so grown up."

Wilbur didn't even have time to say some snide remark in regards to his father being all mushy and sentimental because he was too busy thinking that he could actually see his father standing there.

"You- You're starting to look like my dad."

Cornelius definitely looked much different than Wilbur remembered Lewis. His little round face and nose had begun to grow longer and thinner and Wilbur could actually see the Cornelius he grew up with in his best friend. One thing was still the same, though…

"Except I'm still taller."

The two boys laughed and Cornelius helped Wilbur up. He was right; Cornelius was at lease two inches shorter than his almost-six-foot son.

"Don't worry." Wilbur said. "You have a late growth spurt."

"Thanks for the heads up." Cornelius giggled.

"Always here to help."

"I missed you." said Cornelius, glad that Wilbur had come back regardless of the reasons or the fact that he was going to have to ground him severely in the future for taking the time machine on another joy ride. "Hug?"

Wilbur laughed for a moment, shook his head and rolled his eyes, and agreed to the hug. He was never the sensitive type, but he couldn't deny that he was glad to see his best friend again.

"I missed you too, Lewis."

"Lewis?" Cornelius said as he released the embrace. He hadn't heard that name in a long time, and it made him smile and remember the good times he had with his son. "No one's called me that in years."

"You're just… You're Lewis, not Cornelius. Don't get me wrong, you're a great dad, it's just that Cornelius is the guy who grounds me and makes me do my homework."

"Sounds like I'm doing my job!"

"I suppose." Wilbur grinned.

"All right." Said Cornelius. "Enough standing around. I was just going to pick something up. Come with me?"

"Sure thing."

Cornelius and Wilbur walked down the pathway to the garage.

"What a pathetic garage." Wilbur said.

"I'm working on it."

As the garage door opened Wilbur saw bits and pieces of inventions scattered about. There were a few places that he could recognize were becoming the garage he knew. In the midst of all of the futuristic gadgets there was a teal Ford Escort.

"Antique." Muttered Wilbur.

"Hey now, I haven't invented any methods of travel yet. I still have to drive a car. And it's only fifteen years old!"

"Not to me." Wilbur laughed as he opened the door and hopped into the passenger's seat.

"Be quiet and buckle your seat belt!"

"All right _Dad._"

_AN: Eh… Didn't know how to end that. Oh well, you get that. Oh, and I am a genius! I just copied the word '_Cornelius' _and pasted it whenever I needed it because I didn't feel like typing out his ridiculously long name. (: Haha!_


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: So sorry for the few typos in the past chapter! I'll proof read better this time, I promise. Also, the FWI in the AN was supposed to by FYI… But I'm sure you got that. Anyway, here we gooooo!_

"So what are we getting?" Wilbur asked as he followed Cornelius through the hardware store door.

"Polish." Cornelius replied.

"Polish? Like shoe polish, because this might not be the right store."

"Not shoe polish, _metal _polish." Cornelius picked up a can of his choice metal surface polish and waved it in Wilbur's face.

"Oh, that makes more sense. So what are polishing?"

"An invention, what do you think?"

Cornelius took the can up to the counter and handed it to the employee.

"Good morning, Stan."

"Hey, Corny." The man at the check out counter took the polish and scanned it. He was a thin man in his thirties with a rough exterior, red hair, and big, brown eyes.

"Corny?" Wilbur questioned with a revolted look on his face.

"Hey," said Stan "Cornelius is too hard. That's a lot of syllables, you know? You gotta cut back somehow."

"I suppose so." Said Wilbur. "That's why I call him Lewis."

"Lewis?" Stan questioned. "Wasn't that your name when you were a little boy?"

"Sure was." Cornelius said.

"So you're childhood friends?"

Cornelius and Wilbur looked at each other and smiled.

"You could say that." They said in unison.

Stan looked confused, but smiled and held his hand out for Cornelius's money. Cornelius handed him a five and put his hand out for change. He knew that the polish was exactly four dollars and eighty-nine cents after tax because he bought it so often.

"Thanks very much." Cornelius said as he turned to leave the shop.

"You're welcome, kiddo. See you soon!" Stan waved as the boys disappeared out the door and around the corner.

"So what are polishing, and _don't_ say an invention!?" Wilbur anticipated his friend's reply.

"You'll see." Cornelius said, getting into the car and turning the key. "Seat belt." He reminded his son.

"Don't baby sit me, please." Wilbur begged.

"All right, sorry. I'll try to act less like your dad."

"Thank you. Wait until I'm born for that."

Cornelius looked at Wilbur and laughed at the obviously ridiculous way that last sentence sounded.

"I am still getting used to this time travel thing." He giggled.

"It won't take long." Wilbur remarked smoothly as he crossed his feet up on the dashboard.

"Not to be your dad or anything, but could you take those down? I'd like to keep my car nice."

"Sure…" Wilbur shrugged and took his feet down, muttering "who cares about this old thing…"

Cornelius glanced at his son and gave him 'the eyes' as he looked behind him to back out of the parking space.

"Antique." Wilbur muttered.

Back at home, the two boys went straight through the house and into the lab.

"It's full all ready?" Wilbur exclaimed when he saw the massive amounts of random finished and unfinished inventions scattered about. "Where does it all go?"

"I don't know._ I'm _not the one from the future."

"That's a very good point."

"It would go to Robinson Industries, I suppose. Don't you think?"

"Also a very good point."

Cornelius shook his head.

"You haven't changed much."

"Sure I have! I'm mature now."

Wilbur put his hands on his hips and looked up to the sky as if he was trying to pose as a super hero or some other 'mature' figure. Cornelius just shook his head again.

"All right, so now will you tell me what we're polishing?"

"_We?"_ Cornelius said. "You aren't touching anything."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my invention."

"But I _want_ to!"

"Excuse me; did you claim to be mature a few seconds ago?"

"Sorry…"

"Thank you. Now, prepare yourself. This might feel a bit strange."

Cornelius walked over next to his desk and took hold of a silver cloth. With one sharp movement he removed the cloth to reveal gleaming gold.

"Oh… my… gosh…" Wilbur spoke in awe. "It's Carl!"

"Yep."

"Wow! Carl! I can't believe it!" Wilbur wheeled around and grabbed Cornelius's shoulders. "Have you turned him on yet?"

"No." Cornelius said, shaking from Wilbur's grasp. "He looks terrible. That's why I am going to polish him first. You look pretty excited, so do you want to help?"

"Now that I know what I'd be polishing… Awkward." Wilbur said, not being able to imagine himself rubbing Carl with anything in any way.

Cornelius just smiled, opened the can of polish, and dabbed a hand towel in it.

"So, I can be here when you turn him on?"

"Now that sounded awkward."

"Lewis!" Wilbur shouted, realizing what he had just said. "Stop thinking that way, it's gross."

"Oh come on, I know you think that way all the time, too."

"Well, I'm not going to lie, but you know what I really meant. Can I?"

"Mhm."

"I can?"

"Mhm."

"I get to see him… being sort of born?"

"Mhm."

"And actually talk to him?"

"Yes, Wilbur, calm down."

"This is amazing! He was there when _I_ was born. Well, not actually in the room, that was just you and Mom, but anyway he was the first besides my parents to see me!"

"Really?"

"Yes, and now I get to be the first besides his creator to see him!"

"I'm glad that it makes you so happy."

"Lewis, you know how close Carl and I are. I grew up with him. He was sort of like my nanny and best friend all wrapped up."

"I thought I was your best friend."

"Not until I was thirteen."

"True."

"So of course this makes me happy!"

"I just noticed something."

"What?"

"You're not always Mr. Cool."

"What are you talking about? Yes I am!" Wilbur declared, crossing his arms and cocking his hip in an attempt to make Cornelius forget about the childish outburst of excitement he just had.

"Uh huh, sure." Cornelius laughed as he finished polishing the top of Carl's head. "All done."

Wilbur loosened his arms and leaned forward to see what was about to happen. Cornelius reached around the back of the robot and switched him on. A slight whirring sound came from the center of his body and his eyes began to flicker. Wilbur's eyes also began to shine and widen with anticipation.

"Hello…" said Cornelius to the robot, hoping that it had worked.

"Hello." Said Carl.

"It works!" Cornelius jumped for joy and Wilbur beamed with excitement.

"Of course it works." Wilbur said. "You knew he would work."

"Not on the first try, I didn't!"

"Are you talking about me?" Carl asked.

"Yes." Cornelius said. "My name is Cornelius, and I invented you."

"Invented me?"

"Yes, I invented you…" Cornelius trailed off, worried that Carl was unaware of the fact that he was a robot.

"Just kidding!" Carl laughed, taking Cornelius's hand and shaking it rapidly. "Nice to meet you!"

"You scared me! I thought you didn't know you were a robot."

"It's a bit obvious, don't you think?" Carl said, stretching out his hand and looking at it. "I'm made of metal. So who's this?"

"Him?" Cornelius said, noticing that he was looking at Wilbur. His son was making that same nervous face he always made when he got into time travel trouble before.

"That's my son."

"You're son?" Carl inquired. "You look a bit young to have a son his age."

"He's… from the future."

"H-hi." Wilbur stuttered and waved.

"The future? Whoa, I'm confused."

"You'll understand in the future." Wilbur said.

"In the future I build a time machine and my son Wilbur over there likes to take it on joy rides."

"Only twice!"

"Two times too many!"

"You know you're happy to see me."

"Wait." Carl interrupted the argument. "Why would you come back in time to see the boy who becomes your father in the future if you aren't allowed to use the time machine?"

"Because I can just go back to the future at the same time I left and no one will ever know I was gone."

"That sounds logical, except don't you think Cornelius is going to remember this?"

Wilbur raised his finger as if he was going to say something that made him sound extremely smart and clever, but his hand fell and his shoulders shrugged as he realized Carl was right.

"I all ready told you I wouldn't punish you too bad if you gave me a good reason."

"Do I have a good enough reason?"

"No."

Cornelius and Carl both laughed as Wilbur hung his head, upset that he hadn't exactly thought things through.

"Now," Cornelius said, looking back at Carl. "You can move just fine. You function just like a human, mentally. You've all ready got a definitive personality. Now you need a name."

"How about Lester?" said the robot.

"Lester?" Wilbur repeated in disgust. "No. I'd stick with Carl."

"Stick with?"

"He's from the future, remember?" Cornelius said.

"So my name is Carl?"

"Precisely."

"I can take that."

"Good," Wilbur said, "Because I couldn't grow up calling you Lester."

"You would if that was his name and that's what you grew up with." Cornelius said.

"What?" Wilbur said.

"Never mind. Let's not get into time travel discussion, because I'm confused enough as it is how this whole thing has worked out without unraveling the space time continuum or something."

"That sounds like it would hurt my brain." Carl said.

"It all ready hurts mine."

"I don't even know what you're talking about." Wilbur chuckled.

The three looked at each other and began laughing. This truly was an interesting situation, but as long that the world did not implode and time remained intact, none of them really cared.

"Wilbur, will you stay here for a while? I am going to go introduce Carl to Mom and Dad, and I don't really want to introduce them to their future grandson."

"Sure thing, I understand exactly what you mean."

"I mean it." Cornelius said, helping Carl up and heading toward the door. "Stay in here."

"I will."

"Seriously."

"I will!"

Cornelius closed the door behind him, but on second thought reopened it and peeked back in. He pointed a stern finger at Wilbur.

"Promise?"

"I promise!"

Cornelius shut the door for good this time and headed to the living room with Carl. Wilbur lay down on the ground and looked up at the sky through the glass ceiling. It seemed much too nice out there to stay indoors.

_AN: Yay Carl! Um… If you've read this far, thanks! Please tell me if you see any problems so I can fix it. Also, I hope I don't have to use the phrase back to the future again because I am way too tempted to capitalize it and put a disclaimer on! Haha. And I had the throw in the thing about the space time continuum and stuff because MtR is great, but it creates A LOT of obvious paradoxical flaws. I'm ignoring them for story purposes._


End file.
